Mobile payments service Square announced on Monday that businesses can begin accepting payments sent via Square Cash, an iPhone and Android app previously aimed exclusively at person-to-person transfers.

ShopKeep on Monday updated its point-of-sale app for iPad to support Apple Pay contactless payments, and the company is also offering free Apple Pay-compatible hardware to new merchants who adopt its system.

Small businesses using Square's popular iPhone- and iPad-connected credit card readers combined to sell more than $100 million worth of goods and services in a single day, the company announced on Wednesday.

As the U.S. credit card industry prepares for an upcoming switch to new cards with secure EMV chips, popular transaction provider Square is preparing to help retailers through the change, and is now accepting preorders for its new chip card-compatible readers.

Small businesses using Square's popular iPhone- and iPad-connected credit card readers now have a new way to connect the payments system to their other business processes, as Square and IFTTT on Thursday unveiled a new Square channel for the web automation service.

Both Apple and Google have reportedly had internal discussions about making respective offers to buy mobile payment company Square, though Google is seen as the more likely of the two to actually go through with a purchase.

Having already seen success by letting iPad and iPhone users process credit card payments on their devices, Square has rolled out Square Market, a new e-commerce portal that will bring it into competition with the likes of Amazon and eBay.

Mobile payment processor Square on Tuesday revealed a new hardware accessory for Apple's iPad: the Square Stand, which turns the popular tablet into a register capable of accepting credit card payments.

Mobile payment processing company Square announced on Wednesday its new "Business in a Box" — a product meant to serve as a full point-of-sale system for physical retailers, allowing them to accept payments and perform analytics on their businesses from one device.

The partnership announced between Starbucks and credit card processing service Square underscores the potential demand for mobile device payments, lending some light into why Apple is promoting its new Passbook app as a key feature in iOS 6.